Tax Blawg

Introduction

Welcome toTaxBlawg, a resource for news and analysis of current legal issues facing tax practitioners. Although blawg.com identifies nearly 1,400 active “blawgs,” including 20+ blawgs related to taxation and estate planning, the needs of tax professionals have received surprisingly little attention. TheWall Street Journal's Tax Bloggives “tips and advice for filers,” and Paul Caron’s legendaryTaxProf Blog is an excellent clearinghouse for academic and policy-oriented news. Yet, tax practitioners still lack a dedicated resource to call their own. For those intrepid souls, we offerTaxBlawg, a forum of tax talk for tax pros.

Chamberlain Hrdlicka Blawgs

In this morning’s Tax Notes (subscription required), Jeremiah Coder addresses a topic that we at the Tax Blawg have discussed a couple of times over the past two years: the tax consequences of a potential breakup of the euro. For our prior coverage, see here and here. As the currency lurches towards and away from a potential dissolution (in part or in whole), the tax fallout of such an event lurks in the background.

The Tax Notes article generally covers the major tax issue (e.g., currency gain/loss recognition) associated with a potential breakup of the euro. As the article seemed to ...

According to the Financial Times, companies around the world are preparing for the possibility of a breakup of the euro. Given the currency devaluation that would likely occur in countries coming out of the euro, these companies are preparing for the impact that such an event would have on balance sheets (e.g., asset prices) and income statements (e.g., import costs). (For additional FT coverage of the issue, see here.)

As we noted in the TaxBlawg a while back when the euro crisis was still focused primarily on Greece, a partial or complete breakup of the eurozone would give rise to a host ...

Adding a new wrinkle to this fiscal crisis is Greece's inability to use monetary policy to resolve the problem. Historically, nations faced with unmanageable sovereign debt have often simply printed more money, thereby creating inflation, which reduces the real value of the government's typically fixed-rate debt. As a member of the European Monetary Union, however, Greece does not have this option. As a result, an increasing chorus of commentators and public officials have been asking whether Greece might be forced to take a "holiday" from the Monetary Union or, even worse ...